Most tap water is considered unsatisfactory for drinking, by many people, for reasons of taste and/or health. For example, many people buy fluoride water for their growing children. People with cardiovascular disorders should drink water that is low in sodium. Other people just don't like the taste of tap water, while still others find it more convenient to use bottled water than to run a water line to the place of use. Such water is available commercially in, for example, 5-gallon glass bottles delivered to the user's location.
The conventional dispenser comprises an open top reservoir having a gravitational flow bottom output terminated by a tap. The open top of the reservoir receives the shoulder of an inverted supply bottle so that the mouth or neck of the supply bottle extends down into the reservoir. The water flows out of the bottle, filling the reservoir, until the opening of the bottle is below the water surface. Only when water is drained from the tap, lowering the water surface, will water again flow out of the bottle. When the supply bottle is empty, it can be readily removed as it is light because it is empty. The full bottle must be now lifted and inverted over the reservoir. When one considers that a 5-gallon filled water bottle weighs more than 50 pounds, the person lifting it must be relatively strong and healthy. Since people who had heart attacks especially need low sodium water, they find it impossible to lift the filled water bottle because of their weakened condition.
The bottled water industry has long recognized a need for a solution to the foregoing problem and, in the past, means have been devised for lifting water from the floor to the dispenser. Some of these means are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,653,413; 3,495,612; and others. These prior art means are either expensive and need new equipment, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,495,612; or required a self-contained motor assembly, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,413. This latter patent also requires the user to make sure that the mouth of the inverted bottle is plugged before one attempts to refill the bottle.